Do You Like Horses?

A paragraph from the website of Equine Advocates at www.equineadvocates.com reads: "THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL. The US Senate failed America’s horses and the American people by not allowing S.1915 to come to the floor for a vote last year. If that had happened, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act would have taken effect this year and horse slaughter would have been banned." The same legislation was reintroduced in the Senate as S.311 the following January.

Do you like horses? I hope you do, so here is info regarding the plight of many American horses and how they can be helped. A couple or so years ago, citizens were successful in convincing Congress to outlaw American-run horse slaughtering plants and these terrible places were closed down. That’s good. Now, though, American horses are being shipped by truckload (under horrendous conditions) across US borders into Mexico and Canada, where they are slaughtered in torturous ways, to accommodate a foreign market that considers horsemeat a luxury. That's bad. There are organizations that rescue horses, but rescue alone cannot fix this greed-based situation. The federal legislation needed to stop the international horse shipments was approved in the House of Representatives during 2006, but the Senate refused to allow a vote in the Senate and so the bill was forced to just die without a vote. Now the legislation needs to be re-started ... in the House of Representatives and proceed again to the Senate. If you care about these intelligent and beautiful animals, please contact your federal congressmen and senators, asking them to honor the wishes of American people by supporting this legislation and giving it a favorable vote. The government websites at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov list all US senators and congressman and their contact information. The bill numbers are H.R. 503 and S. 311 and the name of the bill is The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. There is very comprehensive background information at www.equineadvocates.com, the website of Equine Advocates; the organization’s address is P.O. Box 354, Chatham, NY 12037; telephone 518-245-1599.

I urge you to write your letters, send your e-mails, and/or make your phone calls now, as every day counts when it involves suffering that can be remedied by positive action.